Beware The Light
by E.S Wheatley
Summary: A literary version of Caliban's final moments.


The boy hit the monster in the head with the bat, a little static on the monitor emerged as Caliban watched from the cage in the van. The monster turned back to face the boy after the blow, retracting his claws and impaling the boy with them. Caliban had never seen anyone die; not directly anyway.

The screen showed everything the monster was. His height, his heartbeat, his voice, his breathing patterns, his audio pickup and his visual stability. It was like it was some kind of drone.

"He's fantastic." Rice remarked, gazing intently into the screen. The listening Pierce was chewing on a piece of gum, as if watching late-night entertainment, and nodded in mutual agreement.

"You said you only needed the girl!" Caliban weakly yelled, gripping the thin square bars, his burned face pushing against it. All along, he had been tricked into helping them. It was a false promise to get him to cooperate; but what was the use in thinking about it now? Rice turned to him, his stern face mirroring how a parent reprimands a child.

"I told you I was forced to bring a new tool to bear." Rice sneered dryly, his eyes staring straight into Caliban's eyes like knives. "You're friends had every chance, and so did you."

Caliban leaned down the bars, his pained eyes staring into the screen. It was another failure in his catalogue. He had helped Transigen again and again, tracking down every mutant he could. Only when he realised the consequences of his actions, the damage that they did at that facility, did Caliban know that they weren't the good guys.

The monster had shackled the girl, Laura, and stepped out of the room, over the dead body of the boy, his hand still clutching the bloodied baseball bat.

"Nate?" a woman called, it must've been the mother. The monster stopped in his tracks. A woman in a nightgown emerged from the corner of the corridor, a loaded shotgun in her hands. "Put her down."

The monster dropped Laura, and advanced toward her. Somewhere in the audio feed, a man was calling. The woman raised the shotgun to her face, utter fear but deadly confidence in her eyes.

"Stay down there, Will!" the mother responded. As the monster was in arm's length to her, she screamed. The shotgun fired, and the monster didn't even grunt. He slashed at her throat, and the mother collapsed to the wooden floor. Laura screamed.

"Katherine!" the father, Will shouted. "Katherine!"

Caliban could hear frantic footsteps up the house stairs. The monster backed off, waiting to strike. The video showed Will emerging from the stairway, looking down at the body of his wife, but had no time to grieve. The monster lunged forward, digging his claws into the father; as Laura screamed again, this time in anger. The father plunged backwards, rolling down the stairs.

The monster once again picked Laura up, and went down the staircase; almost as if nothing had interfered with his mission. Caliban could see Logan in the feed, staring down at Will's body on the floor. As the monster got halfway, Logan looked up to see straight into the camera. At first it was anger, then it was shock.

Reaching the floor, the monster circled Logan; not attacking, as if confused by his presence. Perhaps it was like looking in a mirror, for both of them. Taking view of the front door, the monster strolled toward it. Caliban couldn't stand to hear Laura's agonising screams, pleading for Logan to help her.

"Charles?!" Caliban heard Logan shout. "Charles!"

The monster descended the porch steps of the house, heading toward the van Caliban was held in. The van was parked rather far from the house, as Caliban could see through the thin windows.

"Here he comes." Rice told Pierce.

"I can pick him up." a Reaver interjected, loading his weapon. "Meet him halfway-"

"No, no, no." Rice interrupted, in a fascinated voice. "Let him come to us."

Caliban had moved from the back side of his cage to the front, out-looking the windscreen of the van. Through the darkness, he could make out the faint silhouette of the monster, stomping across the grass. It looked exactly like a younger Logan, but more leaner and more rough.

"We struggled with X-23s," Rice remarked, poking his bony head through the left-side door. "We assumed because they were children, we could raise them without a conscience."

Caliban turned to Rice, making out a faint smile on his face. He could now hear Laura's faint screams from outside. He couldn't imagine what would be going through her head, or maybe Caliban didn't want to.

"But you can't nurture rage," Rice responded deeply. "You simply design it, from scratch."

Caliban turned back, nearly afraid to see the dark silhouette. But it wasn't dark anymore. Two headlights emerged from the woodland drive, it was a car. Rescue, Caliban hoped.  
The monster turned round to see it, dumping Laura on the ground with a huff. Behind him, Caliban could hear Pierce place his prosthetic hand on the bars, and Rice looking through the windshield as well.

"Who the fuck is that?" Pierce asked to no one, his voice like daggers.

After several cars had pulled up, figures emerged from them, some wearing stetsons. Caliban could hear a loud voice booming from one of them.

"Will Munson!" the figure lured loudly, and began walking across the lawn. The monster did as well. "Munson, goddammit, come out here!"

Caliban couldn't hear what was going on out there, but he didn't want to turn back to the monitor to see what was happening either. The monster had stopped right in front of the group of men, some of them armed. The monster edged closer slowly, the group raising their pistols and shotguns at him. A man with a white stetson, who may've been the leader, shot a bullet straight into the monsters chest.

"No, no, no, no, no." Rice quietly muttered to himself, getting back into the van. It was the first time Caliban saw him panicking.

The monster retracted his claws and sliced the man's head clean off. After a short interval, the group around the monster began shooting at him. The monster lunged at them, chopping off arms and heads. Caliban turned back to Rice, who leaned to Pierce, who was watching the monster curiously.

"We need to intervene." Rice told Pierce sternly.

"Well, he only listens to you, Doc." Pierce answered, barely turning his head away. Perhaps he wanted this scene to last forever. Rice stumbled out of the van, going towards but keeping his distance away from the scene. Caliban turned back, hearing Laura scream at the carnage.

"24!" Rice shouted, signalling to the monster. The monster lunged at a man who frantically shot at him, chopping his shooting arm off. "Get back here! Stop! Stop now!"

The monster ignored him, probably unable to hear him over the man's screams in pain.

"Come!" Rice called. "24!"

Rice turned back to the van, his face genuinely shaken and frantic. "I need some help here!" he called to Pierce.

"God damn." Pierce muttered. "I guess we're going to have to take care of this now."

Caliban turned back to see Pierce walking over to another Reaver, yanking a rifle from his hands. He started loading it. Caliban could hear Rice's inaudible shouting, and the men screaming. Caliban searched the cage, looking for something to use. But when his eyes rested on the band of grenades near the left-side door, he knew what to do.

Caliban slowly grabbed the band, not wanting to attract attention, quickly reaching for two grenades. He had only used a grenade once, after being a part of Pierce's team for so long, Caliban picked up a few things in that awful time.

With a grenade in each hand, Caliban stood up in his cage; looking over the empty bar directly at Pierce, who had just now seen what Caliban was doing. Yanking the clips out with his thin fingers, ignoring their clattering to the floor, Caliban raised them into the air and over the bar. He remembered Pierce's words a few days before, just before he was mutilated by him, when Caliban was exposed to his greatest fear.

"Beware the light." stated Caliban, and flicked the levers in the air. Without a second to lose, Caliban tossed them casually down to the van floor, where they hit with two loud thunks. They rolled right in front of Pierce's and the Reaver's feet.

In the split-second that Caliban had, he imagined a scenario where Logan, Charles and Laura escape the farm and Rice's clutches, killing the monster and reaching the Canadian border. The thought pleased him as the van filled with light.


End file.
